universal
LIBRARY
127 650
UNIVERSi
LIBRARY
EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
EGYPTIAN
DECORATIVE ART
A COURSE OF LECTURES
DELIVERED AT
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION
BY
W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, D.C.L.
EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY, UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE, LONDON
SECOND EDITION
METHUEN & CO, LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.
LONDON
fiisi Puhhshd
Siiond Ed t ion
Oiiohs} lU
li)20
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
SOURCES OF DECORATION
PAGE
EGYPTIAN TASTE FOR DECORATION » . I
DECORATIVE WRITING OF HIEROGLYPHS . 3
ORIGIN OF PATTERNS 5
PROBABILITY OF COPYING * . * . 6
GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENT ... - 9
NATURAL ORNAMENT . . . . . lO
STRUCTURAL ORNAMENT . . . .10
SYMBOLIC ORNAMENT II
CHAPTER II
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION
THE LINE AND ZIGZAG . . . .12
THE SPOT 15
V
VI
CONTENTS
PAGE
THE WAVE .... . . l6
THE SPIRAL. . . . . - • ^7
THE CONTINUOUS SPIRAL ... 21
SPIRAL SURFACE PATTERNS . . . .28
QUADRUPLE SPIRALS . . . . *31
FRETS ........ 35
GREEK SPIRALS ...... 38
SPIRAL BORDERS ...... 40
CHEQUERS ....... 44
STITCH PATTERNS . . . . .46
CIRCLES -47
CHAPTER III
NATURAL DECORATION
FEATHERS 50
ROSETTES ....... 56
DISC AND SPOT PATTERNS . . . . 60
LOTUS FLOWER .... .62
LOTUS BORDERS ...... 64
LOTUS PLAN'f ..... 66
LOTUS DEVELOPMENT .... 68
LOTUS, ASSYRIAN AND GREEK . . *72
LOTUS WITH PENDANT . . . -73
PAPYRUS 75
LOTUS AND PAPYRUS COLUMNS . . .76
CONTENTS vii
PAGE
THE PALM 78
THE VINE 79
THE CONVOLVULUS 8 1
THE THISTLE 82
GARLANDS ....... 82
CAPTIVES 85
THE IBEX 87
BIRDS 87
STARS 88
GRAINING AND MARBLING . . , .89
CHAPTER IV
STRUCTURAL DECORATION
STRUCTURAL FORMS SURVIVING . , • QI
ROPE PATTERN ... . . 92
BASKET-WORK ...... 93
WOODEN FRAMING . . . . *94
PANELLING 95
SLOPING WALLS ...... 96
TORUS ROLL ....... 97
PALM CORNICE ...... 98
PAPYRUS CORNICE . . . . .101
BINDING PATTERNS . . . . . IO3
Vlll
CONTENTS
CHAPTER V
SYMBOLIC DECORATION
THE
URAEUS
PAGE
. JO7
THE
DISC AND WINGS
. 108
THE
HORNS .
-
. no
THE
VULTURE
.
. Ill
THE
SCARAB
.
. Ill
THE
LION .
, II 2
THE
GODDESS
MAAT
• 11 +
THE
GODDESS
HATHOR
. II4
THE
GOD BES
•
•
HIEROGLYPH SYMBOLS
. I16
CAPTIVES
•
. 122
INDEX
.
•
.
‘ 123
ABBREVIATIONS
C M Champollion, Monuments
Duem. Duemichen Hist. Inschr
F P coll. Flinders Petrie collection
Goodyear. Grammar of the lotus.
H S. Historical Scarabs (Petrie).
I Illahun (Petiie)
K. Kahun (Petrie).
L. D Lepsius Denkmaler
P. and C. Pei rot and Chipiez, Egypt.
P. and C Ass. Perrot and Chipiez, Assyria.
P I. Petrie, Illahun.
P M. Petrie, Medum.
P. f Prisse, Art , numbers refer to numbering in Edwards
Pnsse. 1 Library copy, plates being issued unnumbered.
P Mon. Pnsse, Monuments
R. C. Rosellini, Mon. Civili
R S. Rosellmi, Mon Storici
Schuck. Schuckhardt’s, Schliemann
T A Tell el Amarna (Petrie)
Tams Tanis (Petrie)
W M. C Wilkinson, Manners and Customs
The shading of the figures is according to heraldic colours :
red, = blue, \ green, purple, Q yellow
CHAPTER I
THE SOURCES OF DECORATION
T N dealing with the subject of decorative
art in Egypt, it is needful to begin by
setting some bounds to a study which might
be made to embrace almost every example of
ancient work known to us in that land. The
Egyptian treatment of everything great and
small was so strongly decorative that it is
hard to exclude an overwhelming variety of
considerations. But here it is proposed to
limit our view to the historical development
of the various motives or elements of deco-
ration. The larger questions of the aesthetic
scheme of design, of the meaning of orna-
2
2 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
ment — symbolic or religious, of the value
and effect of colour, of the relations of parts,
we can but glance at occasionally in passing ;
in another branch, the historical connection
of Egyptian design with that of other coun-
tries, the prospect is so tempting and so
valuable, that we may linger a little at each
of these bye-ways to note where the turning
occurs and to what it leads. As I have said,
all Egyptian design was strongly decorative.
The love of form and of drawing was pe'P'
haps a greater force with the Egyptians than
with any other people. The early Baby-
lonians and the Chinese had, like the Egyp-
tians, a pictorial writing ; but step by step
they soon dropped the picture altogether
in favour of the easier abbreviation of it.
The Egyptian, on the contrary, never lost
sight of his original picture ; and however
much his current hand altered, yet for four
or five thousand years he still maintained his
THE SOURCES OF DECORATION 3
true hieroglyphic pictures. They were modi-
fied by taste and fashion, even in some cases
their origin was forgotten, yet the artistic
form was there to the very end.
But the hieroglyphs were not only a
writing, they were a decoration in them-
selves. Their position was ruled by their
effect as a frieze, like the beautiful tile
borders of Cufic inscription on Arab archi-
tecture ; and we never see in Egypt the
barbarous . cutting of an inscription across
figure sculptures as is so common in Assyria.
The arrangement of the groups of hiero-
glyphs was also ruled by their decorative
effect. Signs were often transposed in order
to group them more harmoniously together
in a graceful scheme ; and many sounds had
two different signs, one tall, another wide,
which could be used indifferently (at least in
later times) so as to combine better with the
forms which adjoined them. In short, the
4 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
Egyptian with true decorative instinct clung
to his pictorial writing, modified it to adapt
it to his designs, and was rewarded by having
the most beautiful writing that ever existed,
and one which excited and gave scope to his
artistic tastes on every monument This is
but one illustration of the inherent power
for design and decoration which made the
Egyptian the father of the world’s orna-
ment. —
In other directions we see the same
ability. In the adaptation of the scenes of
peace or of war to the gigantic wall surfaces
of the pylons and temples ; in the grand
situations chosen for the buildings, from the
platform of cliffs for the pyramids at Gizeh,
to the graceful island of Philae ; in the pro-
fusion of ornament on the small objects of
daily life, which yet never appear inappro-
priate until a debased period ; — in all these
different manners the Egyptian showed a
THE SOURCES OF DECORATION s
variety of capacity in design and decoration
which has not been exceeded by any other
people.
The question of the origination of patterns
at one or more centres has been as disputed
as the origination of man himself from one
or more stocks. Probably some patterns
may have been re-invented in different ages
and countries ; but, as yet, we have far less
evidence of re-invention than we have of
copying. It is easy to pre-suppose a repeated
invention of designs, but we are concerned
with what has been, and not with what might
have been. Practically it is very difficult, or
almost impossible, to point out decoration
which is proved to have originated inde-
pendently, and not to have been copied from
the Egyptian stock. The influences of the
6 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
modes of work in weaving and basket-work
have had much to do with the uniformity of
patterns in different countries ; apparently
starting from different motives, the patterns
when subject to the same structural influ-
ences have resulted in very similar orna-
ments. This complicates the question un-
doubtedly ; and until we have much more
research on the history of design, and an
abundance of dated examples, it will be
unsafe to dogmatise one way or the other.
So far, however, as evidence at present goes,
it may be said that — in the Old World at
least — there is a presumption that all the
ornament of the types of Egyptian designs is
lineally descended from those designs. Mr.
Goodyear has brought so much evidence for
this, that — whether we agree with all his
views or not — his facts are reasonably con-
vincing on the general descent of classic
ornament from Egyptian, and of Indian and
THE SOURCES OF DECORATION 7
Mohammedan from the classical, and even of
Eastern Asian design from the Moham-
medan sources. A good illustration of the
penetrating effect of design is seen in a most
interesting work on the prehistoric bronzes of
Minusinsk in Central Asia, near the sources
of the Yenesei river, and equidistant from
Russia and from China, from the Arctic
Ocean and from the Bay of Bengal. Here
in the very heart of Asia we might look for
some original design. But yet it is easy to
see the mingled influences of the surrounding
lands, and to lay one’s finger on one thing
that might be Norse, on another that might
be Chinese, or another Persian. If, then, the
tastes of countries distant one or two thousand
miles in different directions can be seen
moulding an art across half a continent, how
much more readily can we credit the descent
of design along the well-known historical
lines of intercourse. The same thing on a
8 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
lesser scale is seen in the recent publication
of the prehistoric bronzes of Upper Bavaria ;
in these the designs are partly Italic, partly
Mykenaean. If forms were readily re-in-
vented again and again independently, why
should we not find in Bavaria some of the
Persian or Chinese types ? Nothing of the
kind is seen, but the forms and decoration
are distinctly those of the two countries from
which the ancient makers presumably obtained
their arts and civilisation. Yet again, to come
to historical times, the elegant use of the
angle of a third of a right angle so generally
in Arab art, is very distinct and characteristic.
Yet if patterns were continually re-invented,
how is it that no one else hit on this simple
element for thousands of years ? The very
fact that the locality and date of an object of
unknown origin can be so closely predicted
by its style and feeling in design, is the best
THE SOURCES OF DECORATION 9
lution of ornament, and how little new inven-
tion has to do with it — in short, how difficult
it is to man to be really original.
Now we can see a source for most of our
familiar elements of design in the decoration
which was used in Egypt long before any
example that is known to us outside of that
land. And it is to Egypt then that we are
logically bound to look as the origin of these
motives. If, then, we seek the source of
most of the various elements of the decoration
which covers our walls, our floors, our dishes,
our book-covers, and even our railway stations,
we must begin by studying Egypt.
As our object is the history and evolution
of the various elements of decoration, we
may classify these elements under four divi-
sions. There is the simplest geometrical
ornament of lines and spirals and curves, and
lo EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
of surfaces divided by these into squares and
circles. There is the natural ornament of
copying feathers, flowers, plants, and animals.
There is structural ornament which results
from the structural necessities of building and
of manufacture : these often result in the
perpetuation of defects or copies of defects,
like the circle stamped in the plain end of
meat tins which is made to imitate the
circular patch soldered on to the other end,
so trying to establish a balance of appearance.
Many architectural devices and difficulties
are perpetuated for us in this way long after
the original purpose has passed away ; such
as the cylindrical bosses projecting from the
walls in Moslem architecture, which imitate
the projecting ends of pillars torn from ruins
and built into the wall, though rather too
long for the position. The origin and the
imitation can be seen side by side at Jeru-
salem. Structural ornament is therefore
THE SOURCES OF DECORATION ii
often of the greatest historical value as
pointing to a condition of things that has
since vanished.
Lastly, there is symbolic ornament
Some now claim most decoration as having
some symbolic or religious meaning ; of
that I shall say nothing, as it is but an
hypothesis. But there is no question of the
symbolical intention of many constantly
repeated ornaments in Egyptian work, as
the globe and wings, the scarab, or the
various hieroglyphs with well-known mean-
ings which are interwoven into many
designs.
CHAPTER II
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION
The Line.
/^NE of the simplest and the earliest
kinds of ornament that we find is the
zigzag line, which occurs on the oldest
tombs, 4000 B.c. So simple is this, that
it might be supposed that every possible
variety of it would be soon played out.
Yet, strange to say, two of the simplest
modifications are not found till a couple
of thousand years after the plain zigzag
had been used. The wavy line in curves
'instead of angular waves is not found till
the XVIIIth dynasty, or about 1500 b.c. ;
while the zigzag with spots in the spaces
12
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 13
is equally late, and is generally foreign to
Egypt.
zigzag line is used
down to late times, but generally with
variety in colour to give it interest. From
the earliest times this was symmetrically
doubled, so as to give a row of squares
■jvith -parallel borders ;
or with repeated zig-
zas: borders in alter-
o
m
2. — IV. dyn., Mery, Louvre.
nate light and dark colours.
This same type lasted on-
ward to the XIXth dynasty
(belt Ramessu II. c.m.x.), and
is found, with the addition
of spots in the outer angles,
3— v.d^, foreign dress of Shekh
perrotxiif. Absha, at Benihasan, in the
■Cllth dynasty.
A later stage was to repeat the squares
14 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
with varieties of colour ,
and also to introduce
details into the squares,
and so make them com-
pound patterns, as in
the XVI I th dynasty at
El Kab, where the 4 -Pnsse, An. 84
sequence of the blue, green, and red lines
makes a brilliant effect from these simple
elements. Not only a square, but also a
hexagon, was worked into the same design.
This, from the nature of it, suggests a
rush-work screen, and
probably it was plaited
with rushes in three
directions, and hence
the production of this
nri. -
previous zigzag pat- s.— l d , h. 130
terns all suggest weaving ; and in some in
Ptah-hotep’s tomb (Vth dyn.) closely woven
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 15
and complex zigzag patterns are shown
which are evidently copied from textiles,
as we shall see further on in the chequer
patterns.
The use of spots for filling in corners was
foreign to the Egyptian. We first find it in the
garments of the Amu, or people of northern
Arabia, in the XI Ith dynasty. Till then a spot
is never seen, except for the centre of a square ;
but the Amu dresses
are covered with spots
in every space, and
even along the bars
and stripes of colour. The same is seen on
the later dresses of the Amu in the XIXth
dynasty, and also in the
dress of the Phoenicians,
or Keft people. It re-
curs on the foreign vases
7 — XVIII , Keft dress
C M cxcl
8 —XX. Vase, C M. cclix.
probably brought in from the iEgean ; and
it is only found in Egyptian products
i6 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
during the XVIIIth dynasty, when foreign
fashions prevailed, though it is but rare
then. Hence we may fairly set aside
this use of spots as a foreign or Asiatic
element, akin to the filling in of spaces on
early Greek vases with rosettes and other
small ornaments.
The zigzag line only became changed into
a rounded wavy line in the later time of
the XVIIIth dynasty,
This probably results 5 — xviii., p i. xvu 7.
from the earlier patterns being all direct
copies of textiles which maintained recti-
linear patterns ; but when the same came
to be used on pottery (as above), or on
metal work (shield border, L.D. iii. 64),
then curves were readily
introduced. On a golden
bowl repeated waves are
^ R C. Ivii
shown, deepened so as to receive further
figures.
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 17
The Spiral.
The spiral, or scroll, is one of the
greatest elements of Egyptian decoration ;
it is only second to the lotus in impor-
tance, and shares with that the origination
of a great part of the ornament of the
world. The source of the spiral and its
meaning are alike uncertain. It has been
attributed to a development of the lotus
pattern ; but it is known in every variety
of treatment without any trace of connec-
tion with the lotus. It has been said to-
represent the wanderings of the soul; why,
or how, is not specified ; nor why some
souls should wander in circular spirals,
others in oval spirals, some in spirals with
ends, others in spirals that are endless.
And what a soul was supposed to do
when on the track of a triple diverging
1 8 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
spiral, how it could go two ways at once,
or which line it was to take — all these
difficulties suggest that the theorist’s soul
was on a remarkable spiral.
The subject of spirals fall into two
groups. The older group by far are the
scarabs, which contain spirals on a limited
and small field ; the other group are those
continuous patterns on ceilings, furniture,
&c., which are capable of indefinite ex-
tension by repetition. As the scarabs
are far the older examples, there is a
presumption that spirals may have even
originated on scarab designs ; and the
hesitating and simple manner of the
oldest instances on scarabs indeed seems
as if the engravers were merely filling a
space, and not copying any
well-known pattern. The
earliest that can be cer-
tainly dated is one of
ii.—F.P. coll.
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 19
Assa, of the Vth dynasty, on which a
bordering line is interrupted at the ends
and turned in to fill the space on either
side of the name. From the cramped way
in which this is done, and the want of uni-
formity in the spirals, it seems as if no
regular pattern were in view, but only the
need of avoiding an unsightly gap in the
design. We next see spirals
used in the same way to fill
up at the sides of the inscrip-
tion on the scarabs of Pepy,
without any attempt to connect
them into a continuous pattern ;
and on the scarabs of Ma'abra,
probably soon after, the same
loose spirals are seen thrown
in to fill up. In none of these
cases is the ornament anything but the
means of supplementing the required in-
scription; nothing is arranged for the sake
20 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
of it, and it is treated as a mere after-
thought. Nor is it until the Xllth
aynaacy that any continuous spiral design
can be dated. For over a thousand years,
then, the spiral is only to be found as an
accessory on scarabs, a fact which strongly
suggests that it originated in this manner.
Before describing spirals further, it is
needful to settle some definite names for
their varieties. Where the lines are coiled
closely in a circular curve, as in Assa’s
scarab, they may be termed coils; where
lengthened out, as in Pepy’s, we may term
them kooks ; where lengthy in the body
between the turns, as in Ma'abra’s, they
are rather links. Where the line is broken
at each spiral, as in all the above, it is a
chain of spirals ; but v/here the same line
is maintained unbroken throughout it is
a continuous spiral, and these are found
in all varieties of coils, hooks, or links.
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 21
Sometimes the continuous line has separate
ends, but more usually it is endless, return-
ing into itself. These terms will suffice
to distinguish the varieties, and enable us
to speak of a spiral with definiteness.
These detached spirals continued in use
in the Xllth dynasty, generally
as loose links, often not hook-
ing together, as in this of
Usertesen II. In the XVIIIth
dynasty this is still found as a
14- — Louvre.
general surface ornament on the boat covers
of Hatshepsut at Deir al Bahri and on the
base of a Kohl vase in
the Ghizeh Museum.
But the spiral was de-
15.— Ghizeh.
veloped, apparently
under Usertesen I.,
into a chain of coils,
which are drawn
with great beauty
Fig. 16. F.P. colL Fig. 17.
22 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
and regularity. Such care indicates that
the design was a novelty, which was not
yet stereotyped and reproduced as a matter
of course. In no later reign were spirals
ever so beautifully and perfectly executed.
This type was revived under Amenhotep
II. (H. S. 1097). In about the Xllth
dynasty it was combined with the lotus in
perhaps the most perfect de-
sign that remains on any sca-
rab — a continuous coil with
flowers and buds in the spaces.
But it was felt that the
spirals all round occupied too much of the
field, so the top and bottom were left free
for inscribing, and the ornament was limited
19— F.P.
to the sides, as in this chain of
hook pattern of Usertesen I.
This design, with the line con-
tinued around the top as well
as the base, was the staple
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 23
decoration of the private scarabs of the
Xllth-XIIIth dynas-
Ini
Fig 20. F.P coll. Fig 21.
ties, many of which
are of great beauty.
Both types are found,
but the hook pattern
is more usual than the coils.
In the finest work, however, the line
is made endless, a
single continuous
line forming the
whole pattern, as
m the endless hook 23 f p. coii. fj^. 33.
pattern of Setmes, and the endless coil
pattern of Ptaherduen.
In the few spiral
scarabs of later
times the pattern is
not only placed at
the sides, but is
carried all round, as we see in that of
24 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
Amenhotep I. and one of Ramessu II.,
which latter is the latest spiral pattern
known on scarabs.
The long links were seldom used in
26.— F.P. coll.
continuous patterns around sca-
rabs, as in this, but were more
usually employed for indepen-
dent spiral patterns without any
inscriptions.
After serving as adjuncts to inscriptions.
27. — F.P coll. 28 — K X 50 29 — I viii 69
the spirals became elaborated as sole pat-
30. — K. X. 28
terns. These are at
first a few simple
coils, as on one
which, from the side
pattern, can be dated
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 25
to about the Vlllth dynasty. These, when
elaborated with more coils or links, some-
times developed to great length.
Such patterns required but little inge-
nuity, and it is rather in the
design of continuous spirals that
the Egyptian showed his skill.
The problem was how to arrange
a number of coils in a sym- 32.— k . x. 17.
metrical system uniformly covering the
surface of the scarab, and yet to connect
them in a true series. This was done in
various ways, usually by introducing long
loop lines around the edge.
One of the simplest type is —
In another a cross
pattern is formed
which is entirely of
Q coils, like frequent patterns
34.- 1. X. 176 at Mykense.
Others fill up by establishing a repeat-
33 -fp.
26 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
ing pattern, which might be indefinitely
multiplied, as—
date by 35 — f p 36 —f p
>^^11 shortening the links to allow of
((g5^ ^ the connecting line passing the
37._fp. This difficulty of designing
good covering patterns out of true con-
tinous lines probably led to the evasion of
introducing false links. Thus what would
otherwise have been an opening in the
middle was barred across.
38.— 1 . X. 158. 39- —K: X 27 40.— K.x. 48
Some beautiful eifects were obtained by
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 27
which does not, at
41 — F.P
42— F.P.
this false barrinor,
first sight, catch
the eye, as in these
two examples.
In the latter, two
complete lop-sided
spiral groups are joined by long false links
around the outside. Another favourite
device which often occurs is also
compounded of lop-sided groups,
or rather of a cross group, like
Fig. 43, with four false links
joining in the middle.
Some other devices did not
profess to cover the whole
field, as in Figs. 44 and 45 ;
and sometimes two separate 44-— i-x 144.
28 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
lines of design were superposed, a single
element of the same design being found
as late as Tahutmes III.
The spiral had thus been greatly de-
veloped as a detached ornament for a small
surface ; but in architecture and furniture
it was required as a continuous decoration
on borders and on large surfaces. Hence
its development was in many ways different,
and — so far as we know — later by a whole
cycle of history than the development on
the scarabs. On those small objects it
started in the Vth dynasty, became fully
elaborated in the Xllth, is common in the
Xlllth, and only very occasionally found
in the XVIIIth, disappearing altogether in
the XIXth. On walls and furniture it is
rare in the Xllth dynasty, becomes usual
in the XVIIIth, flourishes in the XIXth
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 29
and XXth, and is decadent in the XXV I th.
The simplest form in which it is found
is as a chequered pattern series of S
spirals, apparently on cloths thrown over
boat cabins. On Hat-
shepsut’s boat the spi-
rals are close together
(Duem. XXL) ; but
rather later, on the rig. 48.
boat of Neferhetep, they are spread with
chequers of red and blue between them
(W.M.C. Ixvii.).
About the same period they appear as
a continuous coil pattern in relief on the
columns of the harim
well at Tell el Amarna.
The spiral in relief
t
being in yellow, it pro-
bably was copied from a jewellery pattern
in which a strip of gold was twisted into
spirals, and the spaces filled with squares
Fig. 49
30 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
of coloured stones or pastes, judging from
the analogy of the inlaid capitals. This
example being earlier than most of the
spiral decorations of surfaces may thus
open our eyes to the meaning of some
such designs; and, in general, a close con-
tinuous coil returning on itself may well
be a copy of a strip of sheet metal,
doubled, and rolled up.
The next stage is where continuous lines
of spiral pat-
terns are placed
side by side,
and other pat-
terns developed
in the spaces
between them.
Sometimes the
intervening
patterns become so complex as to over-
shadow the mere spirals, as in the splendid
GEOAIETRICAL DECORATION
31
ceiling of Neferhotep, in the XVIIIth
dynasty. And in this the far more com-
plex quadruple spiral begins to appear, as
we shall see presently.
The lines of spirals were not only placed
parallel, but were also
crossed. For some
reason this type was
never well developed,
but remained one of
the coldest and most
mechanical of all, look- ' ^ 51 —p ss-
ing in the later stage of the XXVIth
dynasty like a most
debased wall paper.
But the glory of
Egyptian line decora-
tion was in thebquad-
ruple ^iral, of which
the most elementary
example is on a boat cover as late as the
32 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
XXth dynasty (Ramessu IV.) ; though it
has passed through this stage long before
that time — if indeed this may not be re-
garded as a degraded simplification of it.
It is also sometimes rhombic in plan.
54 — Xllth dyn R C. Ixxn.
ing the hollow squares.
This became
From this was de-
veloped a peculiar
pattern by the omis-
sion of the lines
which define the spi-
rals, thus reducing it
to a system of rows
of hollow-sided quad-
rangles without any
apparent connection.
The main develop-
ment of the quad-
ruple spiral was with
rosettes or lotus fill-
subject with the
stock
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 33
Egyptian, and from thence a main pattern
in other lands. The fill-
’ng in was either a flower
pattern or a rosette, which
night be either a flower
or a leather pattern, as we
shall notice further on.
The insertion also be-
:ame more complex, four lotus flowers being
placed in each angle of the hollow square;
and the spirals being
more heavily developed,
n order to gain enough
space for complexity in
:he squares between
;hem. Such a system
sould hardly be carried
56— P 86.
urther, but reached its limits ; like the
imit of size in the Great Hall of Karnak,
Adhere the columns occupy too large an
area in proportion to the clear space.
34 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
In another direction, however, the spiral
blossomed further, in
the parallel lines of
spiral pattern. These
became developed by-
introducing link lines
so as to form a quin-
tuple spiral, which
was further complicated by lotus flowers
and buds in the hollows and recesses.
In this direction, again, the Egyptians
had reached the limit beyond which more
detail would be merely confusing. By care-
ful use of colour to separate the various
parts, these complex patterns remain clear
and pleasing in spite of their richness of
detail.
The quadruple spiral had, however,
another development, of Q links, which is
rather too formal to be beautiful, and lacks
the flamboyant ?race of the chains of
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 35
spirals. Still it has a simple dignity,
related to the scarab
spirals rather than the
flowing surface patterns.
This became formalised
into a torturing kind of
design, which can only
be described as “cur-
sedly ingenious," By simplifying the pre-
vious pattern, a wave
was invented which
was equal in each
direction, and four of
these were crossed in
a manner which noth-
ing but bold colouring
could make intelligible.
The fret patterns are all modifications of
corresponding spirals. The cause of such
36 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
change is obviously the influence of weav-
ing. As early as the
Vth dynasty we find
a fret of rhombic form
in basket-work in the
screen behind the figure
of Ptah'baumefer, at
Gizeh.
6 o.— L.D. II. 57. Gizeh. The angles
show that the plaiting was in three direc-
tions, as we saw in the basket-work pat-
tern at Benihasan (Fig. 3). But frets in
general are very rare until a late period,
and they doubtless depend on the adapta-
tion of spirals to textiles. We see no
trace of the fret in the Mykenaean art, the
spiral there being figured on stone or
metal, while the women wore flounced
dresses with scale pattern. But in the
pre- Persian age fret pattern weaving in
borders was the standard design, as we
see on the coloured robes of the Par-
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 37
thenon statues; and immediately after that
the stiffest of square frets swarms over
Greek art, to the exclusion of the graceful
spirals and scroll borders.
The chains of links were copied in the
ifel
Ml
Bi
iiii
pii
ilH!|
61. — P 82,
62. — P. 83.
fret pattern with no difference except in
squaring up the
curves. The same
is true of the quad-
ruple spirals, which
appear likewise modi- j
fied; and this change
seems to have led to .r « <»
another simplified form, which is on the
38 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
same idea as the torturing design (Fig.
59), but which is less ingenious, and is
still possible as an ornament.
So far we have viewed only the course
of Egyptian design, nor can we travel far
outside of it within these pages. More-
over, as it is dated before any other such
decoration in other countries, it is well to
view its course as a whole without confus-
ing it with the various fragments borrowed
from it by other lands. Yet we may well
turn now to see the beginning of the
course of European decoration at Mykenae,
and observe its close con-
tact with that of Egypt.
The spiral is the main
element of pre-historic
decoration in Greece;
the parallel chains of links
occur almost exactly as
we have already seen them in the pattern
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 39
of Neferhotep, but omitting the inner de-
tails added in the spaces.
The quadruple spiral is splendidly shown
in the ceiling of Orchomenos, with a lotus
flower in each space ;
also as a simpler
form without any fill-
ing in of the squares
on the grave stele
(Schuck. 146). While
even the ox head
with a rosette between the horns, in the
grand quintuple spiral pattern (Fig. 57),
is strangely paralleled by an ox head of
silver with a large rosette on the fore-
head found at Mykenae (Schuck. 248).
In observing these equivalents it must
be noted that whole patterns with their
detail are taken over complete from Egypt
There are none of the series of inter-
mediate steps which we have traced in the
40 EGYPTIAxN DECORATIVE ART
mother country; and where a simpler forn^
occurs it is known to be later, the grave
steles being after the age of the great
ceiling. Thus there is the surest sign ot
a borrowed art, apart from the facts of the
exact resemblances we have noted. Oi
course the Mykenaean designs are mostly
influenced by the taste of the race. Many
of them are strongly European, and might
be of Celtic or Norse work, as has been
shown by Mr. Arthur Evans ; but the
source of the designs lies in the two
thousand years’ start which Egypt had
before Europe awoke.
A separate form of the spiral pattern is
that used for borders, otherwise called the
wave or maeander, which merged into the
guilloche. Although the chain of coils on
the scarab borders in the Xllth dynasty
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 41
may be regarded as a wave border, yet no
example is known of this border on other
objects until the XVIIIth dynasty. At
that time it appears as often on foreign
objects as on Egyptian, and the only in-
stance of the guilloche is on foreign dress.
Hence this development of the spiral idea
may well be due more to the Aegean civili-
sation than to that of Egypt. This will
agree with the oc-
currence of the guil-
loche on black pottery ^
from Kahun, which class, wherever it can
be dated, is found to belong to the
Xllth-XIIIth dynasty. The metal vases
shown on the monuments of the XVIIIth-
XXth dynasties are
mostly foreign tri-
67. — R.C. Ivii
butes, and on them the wave border is
69. — R.C. Im
68.— P 97 105.
42 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
common, merging into a twisted rope bor-
"^hich is also
70-RChn found — though rarely
— on scarabs of the Middle Kingdom.
In Egyptian use this border is seldom
found. A box in the Louvre had a line
of long links ; and a scroll edge appears to
Fig. 71
Fig. 72.
the standard of Ramessu II. But more
usually the scroll is associated with the
lotus, as in these —
The innumerable adaptations of this in
Greek and later designs are familiar enough
to us.
The influence of weaving has been very
great upon these wave borders. As I
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 43
have before noticed, the woven borders,
reducing the pattern to a fret, are shown
on the pre-Persian statuary at Athens, and
precede the most common and oft-repeated
use of the fret or key pattern borders in
Greece, and thence in all classical, medi-
aeval, and modern times. "
Another type of border, which may be
connected with this, is found in the Ra-
messide age. As it occurs as stitching on
leather, and is well
adapted to quilting or 7 S.— r.c. cxxi.
sewing bands together, it may well have
been derived from that ; but it is also
found on metal work, with which it does
not seem to be connected by origin.
y6 . — R C. IxL
77.— P 103
44 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
The source of chequer patterns is unmis-
takably in plaiting and weaving. On the
oldest monuments the basket sign, neb, is
chequered in different colours ; so are
also the baskets of farm produce carried
by the servants, as shown in the tombs.
The modern Nubian basket-work is well
known for the many patterns which it
bears like the ancient Egyptian. The
chequer pattern is found in every period
in Egypt, and is perhaps most common in
the latest forms on the sides of thrones in
the Ptolemaic age. In the Old Kingdom
many varieties were in use. The plain
chequers of red or
black with white, the
squares filled with
black and red crosses
on a green and yel-
low chequer; or dia-
gonal square patterns
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 45
developed by lines of
chequers, which are often
not square but elongated,
thus forming general and
wide-spread patterns
which attract the eye on large
surfaces. These are best seen
in the tomb of Ptahhotep
(P. and C. xiii.) and in that
of Peheniuka (L.D. i. 41),
both of the Vth dynasty, at
Sakkara.
In the Middle Kingdom we find chequers
covered with bars of
colour, red and green,
at Benihasan.
Under the empire
81 — L D II 130
chequers are less
common owing to
the greater develop-
ment of more elabo-
46 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
rate decoration. A pleasing variety was
formed by lengthening the squares, a
change doubtless copied from weaving,
where oblong squares serve to break the
monotony of the pattern.
In later ages of the Saitic and Greek
times the chequer is a common resource,
83 --L.D jv 77.
but is seldom treated
with originality or
grace, and we do not
find any new depar-
ture or advance in
the mechanical execu-
tion of the later ex-
amples. One slight novelty was the
alternation of whole and divided squares
of colour, under Claudius.
Somewhat analogous are the net-work
patterns. They seem to be probably
derived from st itch -pattern over dresses.
Though found in the Xllth dynasty they
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 47
are not usual until the XVIIIth dynasty,
and they are generally on the dresses
of goddesses. A simple example is on
a horse-cloth of Ra-
messide age, which
shows that these can
84.— R.S. Ixxxii.
hardly represent long beads, but rather
stitching or quilting.
A more elaborate form
is on the dress of
85. — C.M. ccxlii cccx.
Bast in the tomb of Seti I., in hexagons.
But this design rose to importance when
it was introduced as
an architectural ele-
ment in the decora- Fig. 86.
tion of columns at Tell el Amarna. There
it is coloured yellow, and the spaces are
alternate red and blue.
The Egyptians never used circles freely in
decoration ; no examples are known before
the XVIIIth dynasty, and but few then.
48 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
The intersecting circles, forming a kind
87 ~ p. 79
times (L.D. i. 41).
other patterns were
of net-work, are
found in the XVIIIth
dynasty in blue on
a yellow ground; and
the same occurs in
black on blue and
red ground, in later
Besides the rosettes
introduced into the
88.— P. 84. 89.— P. 86
spaces, which were coloured red and green
alternately. But the most beautiful type
was with contiguous circles not intersect-
ing, and each containing four lotus flowers.
GEOMETRICAL DECORATION 49
The circle, however, never became of im-
portance, probably because it was too stiff
and mechanical for the Egyptian, who de-
lighted in the waving spiral patterns and
the unlimited variety of lotus develop-
ments. It is remarkable that there is not
a single example of the circle divided into
six, or with six segmental arms, which is
so common a motive in Assyria and Syria,
and ■which results so readily from stepping
the radius around the circle. This seema
to show that the Egyptian did not use
compasses at any time, but always worked
with a string and points. The absence of
a simple and self-evident motive like the
sixth of the circle is almost more striking
than a peculiar motive being present.
5
CHAPTER III
NATURAL DECORATION
' I 'HOUGH it might be supposed that
the imitation of natural forms would
be the earliest form of decoration, yet this
is not the case. On the contrary, we find
the geometrical forms of wave lines, and
chequers copied from weaving, and the
varieties of the spiral, were the first orna-
ments of importance in Egypt ; while- the
natural forms of feathers and flowers were
not generally imitated till a later time.
One source of simple pattern that has
been little noticed is the feather, and the
variety of its forms. Fortunately we have
NATURAL DECORATION
SI
these different forms shown unmistakably
as feathers on the coffins of the Antefs in
the Xlth dynasty, before we find them in
common use elsewhere. Hence we can
ha\'e little doubt as to their real origin.
On these coffins the royal mummies are
figured as swathed around in protecting
wings, representing those of Isis at the
sides and of the vulture of Mut on the
head. The feathers have different forms
according to the part of the wing which
they occupy. Thus on one coffin we find
all of the following types of feathers ; —
Fig. go. Fig 91 Fig. 92 Fig 93 Fig. 94.
Now when we have thus been shown
the conventional types which were used to
represent feathers, we can identify these
again in many other places, where pro-
53 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
bably the original idea of feather work
was entirely lost ; and we have a new
light on some representations not yet
understood.
On the kings of the XVIIIth-XXth
dynasty we often see a wide belt
covering the whole stomach, which
is decorated with what is commonly
called scale pattern. But this occurs
in scenes which are not at all war-
95 —
like, and where no defensive scale
R S
aax. armour is likely to be shown —
Amenhotep I. is seated as a god receiv-
96 . — Amenhotep 11, R.S.
X3CXV11,
ing adoration after his
death; Amenhotep II. is
represented adoring Ra.
And in the second case
the pattern is identical
with the feathers on the
Antef coffin. The only
conclusion is that these
NATURAL DECORATION
S3
represent belts of feather work worn
around the body to prevent chill, like the
voluminous waist shawl of modern Ori-
entals. Such a feather belt would be
admirable for lightness and warmth, but
that it is not scale armour is seen from
the absence of it in fighting scenes. On
the contrary, in the royal campaigning
dress another form of feather work is
seen in the large wings of feathers which
encircle the shoulders (Ramessu II., R.S.
Ixxxi.).
This feather pattern is also very usual
on the sides of thrones, from the XVIIIth
dynasty down to the latest times. Here
again it is evident that it cannot be scale
armour; and a feather rug thrown across
the seat, in place of the ftir rug otherwise
used, is a very likely thing to find in such
a position.
We may, then, take this pattern, when
54 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
used on dress or on thrones, to represent
feather work. But in later times it is
also used on very incongruous obijects.
As early as the XVIIIth dynasty the
feather pattern occurs around columns
as an architectural ornament (Tell el
Amarna), and with the characteristic mark-
97 — P- 79-
ing also about the XIXth
dynasty (P. 79 ) ; also on metal
work (vase, P. 97), where it
must be purely an artificial
marking.
It became elaborated under
Seti I., with markings upon it,
both on a dress of a god and
on a throne-cover. And it be-
99.— K b.
Ixxix.
came degraded into an unintelli-
gible pattern under Ramessu II.,
when it appears as the dress of
the god Amen.
In- later times the same pattern was
NATURAL DECORATION
55
used on columns at Philae, in an
, inverted and very corrupt form.
The other forms of feather
pattern shown on the Antef
coffin were also found later. But they
merge so readily into mere line patterns
that it is not likely that they were re-
garded as feathers in their later use.
The V pattern is found on the columns
at Tell el Amarna, on belts of the kings
(L.D. III. i), on painted wooden columns
(P. 73), on the harps of Ramessu III.
(P. 1 14), and many other places.
The use of flowers for ornament is so
natural that their occurrence in the
earliest times is what might be expected.
Yet but few flowers were adopted for
decoration. The lotus is far the com-
monest, after that the papyrus, the daisy,
56 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
and the convolvulus, together with the
vine and palm, almost complete the
material of vegetable designs. There is
also, however, what may be called a
generic flower ornament — the rosette —
which is treated so conventionally that
it can hardly receive any precise name.
Sometimes in the XVIlIth dynasty it is
clearly a daisy, very seldom has it the
pointed petals of the lotus ; and it fluc-
tuates between the geometrical and the
natural so as to defy details. One cause
of this is the evident effect of leather
work. The coloured leather funereal tent
of Isimkheb, found at Deir el Bahri,
opens our eyes to a great deal. We
there see an elaborate design, descending
to long inscriptions of small hieroglyphs,
all worked by cutting and stitching of
leather. After this we can see in many
of the Egyptian designs the influence
NATURAL DECORATION S7
of leather work ; and nowhere is this
plainer than in the rosettes. The earliest
rosettes we know, those on the head-
band of Nefert, at the very beginning
of monumental history, are plain discs of
colour divided into segments by white
lines across them. These are discs of
leather secured by radiating threads ; and
the same are seen in the XVIIIth
dynasty, more varied by concentric
circles of colours, probably succes-
sive superposed discs stitched dowm
one over the other.
Another stitch ornament is seen on the
stuffs used for covering
thrones in the XXth
dynasty. There star
and cross patterns are
used which are evidently
stitch work or embroi-
dery ; and in the spaces
103 — P ri6.
58 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
are discs of colour with white spots
around, probably pieces sewn on by
stitches round the edge. On a dress of
^ Ramessu 1 1, also are little
itj.— R.s*ix\*i! six-pointed stars, which were
doubtless stitch work.
There can be no doubt of the effect
that stitching has had on the use of
rosettes, but other varieties are probably
independent of that. The great series of
rosettes is in the moulded glazed ware
of Tell el Amarna ; there several dozen
varieties are found, varying from four
petals to thirty- two. The more elaborate
of these have an unmistakable
daisy centre of yellow in the
midst of white petals, and this
indicates what was probably the flower
in mind for most of them.
The rosette is found in varied use.
On metal vases it is very general, and
NATURAL DECORATIO^
59
may either be a separate ornament of
beaten work riveted on, like the rosettes
on the silver ox head at Mykenae, or else
embossed repoussi in the metal. Carved
in wood or ivorj’, rosettes decorated the
furniture ; and they are constantly found
as centre ornaments in square patterns,
and along borders with the lotus or other
subject.
In patterns a fre-
quent form is only
four petals, or a cruci- i
io6. — L.D. II. 130.
form flower, as at
Benihasan in the
Xllth dynasty; and
this is varied by alter- ' 107— p 84
nations of square and diagonal arrangement.
A graceful, simple
form, which again re-
calls leather appliqu6e, is los-p 8+
yellow on a blue ground.
107. — P. 84»
108 — p 84.
6o EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
An allied pattern is the disc surrounded
by spots. This is very usual on early
Greek pottery, and is found on the Aegean
pottery also. This is very rarely seen in
pure Egyptian design, and only in the
XVIIIth dynasty, when Mykenaean in-
fluence was strongest. On Nefer-
hotep’s ceiling two forms are found,
put between the horns of the bulls’
® heads, like the rosette on the My-
kenaean ox head. Elsewhere it is
usually seen on the scarves of the
ooo negroes as a characteristic decora-
oOo tion, and on the dress of the Amu
O o o
(C.M. cclviii.). Hence it appears
to be distinctly a foreign ornament, like
the other spot pattern on a zigzag line.
Only three examples are published from
Egyptian decoration, and those may well
be due to foreign influence.
NATURAL DECORATION 6i
We now reach the largest and most
complex growth of Egyptian ornament in
the lotus, so widely spread that some
have seen in it the source of all orna-
ment. Without going so far, we shall
find plenty in it to tax our reasoning and
imagination. If I prefer, in dealing with
this, to ignore the developments of it
seen outside of Egypt as aids to under-
standing it, this is only because those
foreign examples are so much later that
they are a reflex of various Egyptian
periods, and cannot show anything cer-
tainly as to the long anterior course of
development in Egypt itself.
The debated question of lotus and papy-
rus disappears at once when we look at
the feathery head of minute flowers which
the papyrus bears. That some flower.
63 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
such as a nelumbium, was confused with
the lotus seems, however, very likely.
There is no doubt that in ornament
different flowers were sometimes confused,
and their details mixed ; hence it is of
no use for us to be too particular in
trying to separate them. We shall
therefore use the name lotus in general
without necessarily entering on botanical
reasons for and against it on each oc-
casion.
The oldest use of the lotus
was in groups of two flowers
tied together by the stalks;
such are found on the
prehistoric pottery at
i”33:^i.%. Koptos, and on the
earliest tombs. But in later times
this became corrupted, and the
113— L.L).
origin apparently forgotten, by xvlHthV
the XVIIIth dynasty.
NATURAL DECORATION
63
The plain flower was also used very
early, as we see on the
head-band of Nefert at the
begining of the IVth dynasty. And as
architectural ornament it appears as a
capital in wood of the Vth
dynasty in the tomb of Imery.
At Karnak there is a celebrated
pair of granite pillars, one with
the papyrus, the other with the iiV5irV^f4.
rig. 114
lotus ; and this form, with the
sepals turned over at the end,
became the more usual in the
, ■ j ii-iini Empire
W II n-"'
Eig ri6.
117.— p. 79.
II 8 . — P. 21.
L.D. in. 76.
The variety of
lotus capital is very
great. The bud
capital and the
opened flower are
64 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
both shown in the XVIIIth dynasty (tomb
of Khaemhat) ; and many composite, com-
plicated, and impossible combinations were
piled together in the decadent age of the
Ramessides.
The lotus was also much used in repe-
tition as a border pattern, but not ap-
119 — P. 2^ron. L 120 — R C Iviii.
parently before the XVIIIth dynasty;
and usually it is in alternation with buds.
which fit harmoniously
into the curves between
the flowers. This line
of flowers and buds
was varied as flowers
and grapes, and ap-
pears very often in
the XVIIIth dynasty.
NATURAL DECORATION
65
The flower and bud was further de-
veloped in a mechani- ^ ^ - . yL ' »
cal fashion, and we
can trace a continu-
ous series of forms
beginning in a flower is3.— p 89 s.
and bud pattern and modifying the inter-
i5?J member,
until on reversing
the line we find that
Fig 124.
89 9 90 4.
Fig 125.
90 3. 90 6
something has been
" evolved which is in-
distinguishable from I26,~P 90 5.
the Greek palmetto alternating with the
lotus. The isolated anthemion, which is
so much like this, has probably a different
origin, as we shall soon see.
Beside using the separate flowers, the
whole plant was also a favourite subject
as a group. In the earliest days we find
6
66 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
it entwined around tlie hieroglyph of
union, as we shall notice in considering
the hieroglyphs. In the Xllth
dynasty the plant appears as a
recurrent group in surface decora-
tion ; though from the varying
form of the flower it might .be
intended for lotus or papyrus.
In the XVIIIth dynasty it
is more free, as might be
expected in the time of Ak-
henaten.
It is also seen as a foreign
ornament on the
dress of a Syrian
slain by Ramessu II.
at Abu Simbel, but
in this case perhaps
the tufted papyrus is
intended. And in
129. — R,S. bcxxiu.
place of the rounded group which is usual
NATURAL DECORATION
67
in the XVIIItli-XIXth dynasties we find
a different treatment
on the throne of Ra-
messu III., in which
it is kept more as
a parallel pattern.
This parallelism be-
came general in later 130.— p. 115.
times, and the Ptolemaic walls are ruled
over with stiff friezes of lotus and bud.
These- wall basements are
•preceded by groups of flower
and bud in scenes, which are
of the same style,
as early as the
IVth dynasty, on
the tomb of Debu-
hen. Here it may be the
papyrus; but in the Vth
dynasty, on a basket-work
screen, the lotus and bud is clearly shown.
131.— L.D.
II* 35-
132 — L D
II. 64-
68 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
This pattern, however, is very seldom found
as a general architectural ornament until we
133 — P. 88. L.D. IV. 84.
come down to the dull
sterility of the Ptole-
maic and Roman age.
Then the lower part of
each wall is uniformly
ruled with an endless
series of flowers and
buds on long stems in monotonous order.
We now come to the ornamental de-
velopment of the flower into a monstrosity,
which is only decorative and not natural,
and which requires some thought and com-
parison to understand its origin
First there is the jieur-de-lys
^ 1 Y I tyP®> curled-over sides and
a middle projection. This has
134.— P.79, not been yet explained satisfac-
torily : but a principle which was first
NATURAL DECORATION
69
clearly formulated by Borchardt (A.Z.
xxxi. i) will show the origin of this as
well as of the succeeding forms. The
Egyptian, it seems, consistently drew the
interior or top view of an object above
the side view. In short, they suppose
things to be seen in a bird’s-eye view,
and expressed that by drawing — for in-
stance, a cup — ^in side view and partly in
top view above that A dish would be
drawn in side view, and a top
view of its compartments and
contents placed over it, and
the bunch of flowers that lay
on it is again placed over the
top view. Now on this prin-
ciple we can see that the projection in
the midst of the lotus flower is the third
sepal at the back of the flower, the fourth,
in front, being so foreshortened as to dis-
appear altogether.
70 EGYPTIAN DECORATH^E ART
This view is further complicated by
showing not only some of the
four outer sepals, but also some
of the petals, usually three. Here
the near sepal is shown rising in
front, and then above these everted sepals
are three of the inner petals of the
flower. These might be increased
to five or seven, but were generally
an odd number ; and they were at
f last evolved to a fan of petals, in
which the treatment of the dish of
138— fruit just shown is exactly repro-
T.A
388. duced, a side view of the flower
being crowned by a top view of it show-
ing the radiating petals in the interior.
So far we are on clear ground. Now
we come to a more complex form, which
has also not yet been explained. In the
XVIIIth dynasty (from which we must
mainly draw, as we have the long series
NATURAL DECORATION
7 *
of varieties in the glazed ornaments of
Tell el Amarna) a strange form
appears, with reversed curling arms
above the calyx. Now we have
seen that a third sepal is shown T.Ar375
from the back of the flower, and the
fourth is omitted which lay in front. But
this was an imperfect flower, and so a
diagonal point of view was taken, in which
two sepals lay nearest and were seen in
side view, and the two behind them were
seen over them. Sometimes they
are curled alike, but more generally
they are curled different ways, the
nearer ones downwards, the further 374.'
ones upwards. Hence we get this very
mechanical form, which was greatly de-
veloped in Assyrian and Greek types of
the pattern. If it can be proved that the
Assyrian tree pattern is earlier than this
development, we could then grant what
J?2 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
seems a likely influence on the develop-
t ment of this pattern. It was so
far removed from a natural view
that it soon became greatly varied
^113- and amplified, as on a bracelet in
the Louvre.
In Assyria this became a staple design,
in which the top was greatly
increased at the expense of the
„ lotus sepals below ; but still the
142 — P ^
andC-^Ass. front and two
back, are shown. In the Greek designs,
however barbarous they may seem in com-
parison, owing to their hopeless divergence
from any rational type, yet the
same elements remain, and the
n. xxxi, four sepals can be traced below
the view of the petals in the
flower. Thus the anthemion
.vith its double curves is fully
Goodjta^ 7 $. accounted for, the lower and
NATURAL DECORATION
73
upper sepals being still distinguishable in
the two spirals on each side at the base
of it. The later changes of this neces-
sarily belong to Greek art, and we cannot
here follow them out.
A late development of the lotus in
Ptolemaic Egypt was with a TVVy
central spike through the face of tK ^ '
petals. As this spike rises from 1 jlj
the base, it appears to be the Fig 145.
front sepal rising before the petals.
Another variety in this pattern remains
to be noticed. On very many compound
lotus patterns there is a pen-
dant from each end of the
side sepals. This does not ^
appear until the XVIIIth
dynasty on the monuments : it is then
sometimes single and sometimes double.
But here, as in the spirals, the scarab
type is an earlier stage than the archi-
74 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
tectural. On the architecture it is quite
unintelligible, and a mere conventional
monstrosity ; while on a scarab
of green jasper — which from the
style and material seems cer-
tainly to be before the XVIIIth
dynasty, and probably of the
Xllth — there is an already con-
ventionalised lotus group, with the four
sepals and inner petals already developed
into a sort of “tree pattern,” and the
lower two sepals have a pendant, partly
worn away, but clearly showing a triply-
branching line like a small lotus flower.
This is the earlier stage of this conven-
tional pendant ; but even here, although
the pendant itself is rational, the position
of it is hard to explain. Probably we
must wait for some early scarab to clear
up the real origin of this curious and
puzzling form.
147 -F P
coll.
NATURAL DECORATION
75
We have now traced the evolution of
the various forms of the lotus pattern in
Egypt, and seen how the main Assyrian
and Greek types of the palmetto and the
anthemion arose, which were confounded
together owing to their similarity.
Other plants were often confounded with
the lotus in decoration, by the ancients as
well as by moderns. We have noticed
some examples of this ; and it is well
shown in the group of boat-builders, to
whom, apparently, bundles of papyrus with
lotus flowers are being brought, in the
IVth dynasty tomb of Shepseskau (L.D.
II. 12).
Much use was made of papyrus in the
floral work of Tell el Amarna. On the
painted pavement groups of papyrus with
large red flufly heads of seed vessels are
figured ; and on the coloured tiles the
landscape view of the papyrus plant in
76 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
strictly natural treatment is a frequent
subject. But these belong rather to
artistic than to ornamental work.
In architecture the lotus and papyrus
were largely used, in fact they form the
basis of columnar decoration as distinct
from that of pillars. The earliest figure
of a column that is known is as far back
as any dated monument we possess at the
beginning of the IVth dynasty; and there
it is fashioned as a stem and flower, pro-
J bably carved in wood. The
contracting connection with the
tenon above, in a bell form, on
the top of the flower, is the same
as columns of the Vlth dynasty
(L.D. II. Ill); and is the
source of the much later columns
Fig. Fig.
of Tahutmes III. at Karnak,
NATURAL DECORATION
77
which otherwise seems to be an unac-
countable “ sport.”
In the figures of
wooden columns in
the Vth and Vlth
dynasties, the lotus
form prevails, as we
have alreadynoticed, and here repeat.
In the Vth dynasty, In the
tomb Ptahshepses at Abusir
the clustered papyrus stems are
a new feature ; at Benihasan
they are well developed ; and
they continued in use to the F's- 15=-
XVIIIth dynasty. But a diffe-
rent type then arose into predominance
in the wide bell - topped lotus capitals,
and with long sheath - leaves around the
root ; and this continued for several
dynasties. But this was displaced
by the elaborate composite capitals of
78 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
Ptolemaic and Roman age, which were
made up of varied elements of incon-
gruit>’.
' The palm, though the most important
tree of the country, has had but little
effect on the architecture. There is not
a single example of columns copied from
a palm stem; and the only instances of
the imitation of the stem are in two or
three instances of copies of roofing beams.
The branches are not
copied on columns until
other subjects were well
used. In the Xllth
dynasty the imitation of
a bundle of palm branches
Fig.iss- was made in the capitals,
and it became common in the XVIIIth.
Perhaps, however, as we shall see in
considering the hieroglyphs, the palm
column originates with a bundle of palm
NATURAL DECORATION
79
sticks bound together. It is strange
that the simple element of grouping
branches round a post should not have
been a very usual early motive. Was
the palm really common in early Egypt ?
It does not enter into the hieroglyphs,
and it is seldom shown on monuments
till the XVIIIth dynasty; while grapes,
figs, and pomegranates all seem to have
been commoner than dates.
In late times not only the branches but
the fruit was sculptured ; and at Esneh
and other Roman temples the bunches of
dates are carefully rendered.
The vine is one of the oldest culti-
vated plants in Egypt, and all the designs
copied from it are based on the idea of
its climbing and trailing over the houses.
It appears mainly in the florid work
of the XVIIIth dynasty. The ceiling was
often painted of a golden yellow, with
8o EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
vine leaves and bunches of grapes hang-
ing from a trellis pattern which covers
it. At Tell el Amarna some fragments
found were very free
and natural, but in
the XXth dynasty it
became a stiff and
formal affair. (Tomb of
Aimadua, Ramessu X.).
Bunches of grapes also formed favourite
pendants ; as such they
are painted in rows
hanging from architraves
of wooden buildings (tomb of Ra, Amen-
hotep II.); and frequently in blue glazed
t ware bunches of grapes are
found of varying sizes, with
half of the upper part cut
Fig. is6- away so as to affix them by
a peg-hole to a square wooden beam of
the ceiling.
i5S — P- 79.
154— P 86.
NATURAL DECORATION
8l
In the Greco-Roman decoration of capitals
the vine and grapes also appears, and is
often very beautifully treated, as at Esneh,
though essentially as a mere surface decora-
tion, and not as an organic element.
The convolvulus has scarcely, if at al ,
been acknowledged as an Egyptian orna-
ment. Yet it often occurs during the
XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties. On a
coffin in the Ghizeh Museum a long trail
of convolvulus is beautifully modelled and
painted ; and during the tide of naturalism
under Akhenaten the wild flowing stems
were a favourite element of decoration.
Subsequently the convolvulus is
often shown as a climber on the
lotus or papyrus stems in bouquets ;
and though its leaves then have
been miscalled lotus buds, or “tabs,”
yet they are clearly intended for a
natural leaf of this climber, which
7
82 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
is so common in the Egyptian fields.
Another field plant which played a
great part in the glazed decorations was
the thistle. This is natu-
rally painted on the glazed
tiles ; and the glazed pen-
dants of necklaces and
wall decoration showed an
abundance of thistles with
158 — p 91. green calices and purple
petals. But this, like the convolvulus, was
rarely used except during the beautiful
period of naturalism which was most de-
veloped by Akhenaten.
Artificial combinations of flowers also
became used decoratively. We have just
instanced two examples from the great
bouquets or staves of flowers which the
Egyptians used in ceremonies.
The garlands of flower petals which are
seen on the heads of women, or as collars,
NATURAL DECORATION
83
in the XVIIIth— XXth dynasties were also
placed around the water-jars; and hence
a painted pattern of garlands came to be
used on those jars.
In architecture also the garland came
into use, sometimes JHimBSIIli
carved on the stone Fig 159.
around the columns, sometimes made
in coloured glaze and inlaid in the sur-
face.
Wreaths of lotus A
flowers and buds were
also represented around 160 .— t.a.ix
the columns at Tell el Amarna.
The great pectorals, or breast-plates, of
successive strings of flowers and leaves
were prominent in the personal and
religious decoration- The sacred barks
of the gods were adorned with large and
complex breast- plates, probably made of
bronze, gilded and inlaid (L.D. ui. 235).
84 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
A small example of such
we have in London, with the
details all inlaid in gold. These
pectorals were also represented
xiix.2 on the later vases as a com-
plete whole.
Turning now to the men and animals shown
in decoration, in the period of the Empire we
constantly see figures of captives introduced
to emphasise the power of the king. These
first appear in the great change which over-
came Egyptian art consequent upon the
Asiatic conquests. Before Tahutmes III. the
character and style of work continually recalls
that of the Xllth dynasty; but within one or
two generations a profound difference changed
for ever the nature of the art, and this is
reflected in the national handwriting, which
NATURAL DECORATION
85
shows a similar break. Amenhotep 11. ap-
pears on his nurse’s knee with an emblematic
group of foreigners under his feet, while he
grasps cords tied to their necks ; and in
the same spirit he is shown, when grown
up, as smiting at one blow a whole bunch
of captives whom he holds in his left
hand (L.D. iii. 62; L.D. iii. 61).
Tahutmes IV. similarly is seen seated on
his tutor’s knee, with his feet on a foot-
stool ornamented with prostrate captives
(L.D. III. 69). Amenhotep III. appears
with figures of a negro
and a Syrian bound to
the sam sign on the
sides of his throne, and
henceforward the
abasement of captives
was an essential idea
162.— L.D. III. 76.
to Egyptians. But it should be remem-
bered that common as the notion was in
86 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
late times, it is originally Asiatic and not
Egyptian ; the king trampling on the
nations and making foes a footstool are
ideas not found in Egypt until the Semitic
conquests of Tahutmes III., though the
earliest figure of a sphinx trampling on a
captive is under the Xllth dynasty.
Under Akhenaten six various races are
represented on the sides of his great
balcony (L.D. in. 109), and the alternate
negroes and Syrians are painted on the
passage floors of his palace, or carved in
blocks of alabaster to be trodden under
foot. Down the various ages this
symbolism recurs in decoration
until in Ptolemaic and Roman
times every decent Egyptian had
captives painted on the soles of
his sandals in which he was
buried, so that for all eternity
he might tread down the Gentiles.
NATURAL DLLUKAiiUiN
67
Among animals a favourite in decoration
was the ibex, but it
was not introduced till
the XVIIIth dynasty.
It often appears on
the finger - rings of
Akhenaten’s time, and
later upon the funeral
tent of Isiemkheb, ingeniously adapted to
fill a square space.
The bull or young calf was more fre-
quently introduced ; on the wooden boxes
and trays it is shown as bounding in the
meadows, and it is continually used in the
groups of the painted pavement at Tell el
Amarna.
Birds are also a common subject for
decoration, though only dating from the
same period as the other animals. Besides
the symbolic or sacred use of the hawk
and vulture, the very secular duck was a
88 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
fa\’ourite bird. On the great pavements
of Akhenaten it appears above every group
of plants.
On rings it is often engraved
fluttering above its nest; and in
the decadence of Egyptian art
in the XXth dynasty the incon-
gruous idea was adopted of
birds, eggs, and nests all upon
a ceiling.
The natural ceiling pattern adopted from
the early days of Egyptian art was of
golden stars on a deep blue
ground ; not a dark daylight
blue, as in modern imitations,
but a black night blue. These are always
flve-pointed stars, with a circular spot,
usually o-f red, in the centre.
It is noticeable that the Egyptian views
Fig i66.
NATURAL DECORATION
89
a star as surrounded by long streamers of
light ; because to a long-sighted person, or
any one with proper spectacles, the stars
appear as points of light without radia-
tions. Hence it seems as if the Egyp-
tians w'ere short-sighted people from the
early ages.
Lastly we may notice the base imitation
of nature in copying the grain of
wood, which we find done in the
earliest times of the IVth dynasty,
and continued down to the period
of the Empire. Stones were also
Fig 167.—
imitated by painting, and red granite ^ ^
is frequently copied in the earlier days, on
the recessed doorways of tombs. In later
times vases of valuable stone were
imitated by painting over a pottery
vase, and such cheap substitutes
were commonly placed in the tombs.
These base imitations are of aesthetic
90 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
interest as showing in what a different
manner the Egyptian viewed his materials
from that of our standpoint. He stuccoed
and painted over his hard stone statues ;
it was enough for him to know that the
stone was hard and imperishable — he did
not need to see it always exposed. The
imitation of nature was the standpoint from
which he started, and he had no objection
to carry out that imitation with paint or
otherwise; our abstract standpoint of an
artistic effect which must never involve
falsity, but which may have little or nothing
to do with nature, was altogether outside
of his aesthetic.
CHAPTER IV
STRUCTURAL DECORATION
T N the persistence of certain forms which
were the direct result of the structure of
a building or object, we have a very con-
siderable source of decoration. In Greek
architecture many of the details are entirely
the product of wooden construction trans-
lated into stone. The triglyphs, the imita-
tion of nail heads, of the ends of the poles
supporting the roofing, of the crossing of
beams at the coffers, are all details which
are retained as decoration long after they
ceased to have any structural meaning, owing
to an entire change of material. Such is
91
92 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
structural decoration in its best known forms.
But the same principles equall7 apply to
Egyptian architecture ; there the original
material was not sawn wood as in Greece,
but rather the papyrus and palm branch,
with the ever-present mud plastering and
mud bricks. The decorative details of the
stone architecture have come down from
this stage of building, translated point for
point into stone, just as the Greek trans-
lated his wooden architecture into marble.
But pottery preceded stone in Egypt,
and one of the simplest of ornaments
arose from structural necessity. To this
day may be seen in the Egyptian pottery
yards bowls and jars held together by a
twist of rough palm fibre cord, while they
dry in the sun before baking. This acci-
dental marking by the rope in the wet
clay is seen on the pottery of all ages ;
but it became developed as a pattern ap-
STRUCTURAL DECORATION 93
parently in the twist or guilloche, which
169-— H.S 383. 170— KahunPot
may perhaps be rather derived from this
than from the chain of coils or wave
pattern.
Basket-work was elaborately developed
in the Old Kingdom. There were beauti-
ful screens represented behind the figures
of the owners of the early tombs ; they
might in some cases be matting instead
of basket-work, but others of the patterns
appear certainly to be of a rigid material.
In no case are they likely to be “mats
on which the kings stand,” as styled
by Owen Jones. Among the
various patterns of platting
which are readily developed,
squares, waves, zig - zags,
chequers, &c., there are some
Ww'
MiIm
171. — L D
II. 63.
94 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
made by binding the fibres into bundles,
and so making a kind of open
work, which may well have led
to the pattern of connected
rhombs which is so usual on
Oriental pottery,
the most familiar early motives
is wooden framing. This is continually
imitated in the stone figures of doorways
in the tombs. The details of it show
that a frame or grate of joinery must
have been used for the
porch of large houses,
so as to admit light
and air while the door
was fastened. The'
prevalence of such
wooden frames or lat-
tices in modern times in Egypt — known
as mushrabiyeh work — shows how suited
such a system is to the climate. Long
STRUCTURAL DECORATION 95
after the use of stone was general the
frames were imitated, and the pattern sur-
vived as a decoration. The same style
of framing was used in the upper part of
a house, with decora-
tive uprights of the
hieroglyph tat, and
was copied as a
fancy decoration in
furniture, as seen in a beautiful ivory carv-
ing in the Louvre. This style survived
until the XVIIIth dynasty, when it is
seen in a tomb at Thebes (Amenhetop
II., Prisse Art) and at the temple of
Sedeinga under
Amenhotep III.
Much akin to this
wood framing is the panelling of the brick-
work which is seen in the earliest examples
96 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
in Egypt, and is identical with the panel-
ling of walls in early Babylonia, one of
the indications of a common civilisation of
the two great valleys. This panelling
does not seem to have
lasted beyond the Old
Kingdom ; there was
no trace of it found at Kahun or Gurob,
in the buildings of the Xllth and XVIIIth
dynasties, nor does it appear in any draw-
ings or imitations of buildings.
One of the best known characteristics of
Egyptian architecture is the sloping face
of the walls and pylons. This is directly
copied from brickwork. In order to give
more cohesion to a wall it was the custom
to build it on a
curved bed, so that
the courses all sloped
Fig. 177. up outwards ' at the
outer corners. Thus the outer faces sloped
176. — P M. vii. (plan).
STRUCTURAL DECORATION 97
inwards, and the wall had more stability.
So wedded were the builders to this
method, that where a long wall of a fort
or city was to be built they preferred to
begin with a row of towers of brickwork
thus arranged, and then to fill in the
spaces between them with more plain wall-
ing. This slope of the walls was copied
in stone at the earliest time. The temple
of Sneferu at Medum has a slope on the
face of about i in 16, and it was con-
tinued down to the very latest age of
Roman building
Another familiar feature is the roll or
torus down the corners of the build-
ings. It is usually ornamented by
a pattern of binding. This —
as was well pointed out by
Professor Conway — is evidently
a bundle of reeds bound together,
and put down the angle of the 178 -Perrins.
8
g8 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
plastering in order to preserve it from
breaking away. Such a construction was
an ugly necessity at first, but when stone-
working arose it had become so familiar
that it was faithfully copied in stone as a
decoration, and continued to be so copied
for more than four thousand years, as long
as Egyptian architecture lasted.
The well-known Egyptian cornice has
been so long taken for granted that it
might seem never to have
required an origin. Yet in
the villages of the
Fellahin to-day
palm cornices may
Fig. 179 . be seen in course
of development. A fence is pig- iso
formed of palm-sticks, placed upright, and
stripped of leaves for some way up. The
STRUCTURAL DECORATION
99
tops are left bushy, and serve to prevent
men or animals climbing over the court-
yard wall. The upright sticks are tied
together by a rope near the top, or lashed
on to a cross line of sticks. The fence
is stiffened below by interweaving other
palm-sticks in both directions ; and then
the whole is plastered with mud up to the
tie level. Here we have the cavetto
cornice being formed by the nodding tops
of the branches ; and to clinch the matter,
the earliest representations of that cornice
are on figures of buildings which show
the crossed sticks of the fence below
the cornice. The ribbing of the cornice
is seen on the earliest examples, on Men-
kaura’s sarcophagus in
the IVlh dynasty (Per-
ring), in the Vth
dynasty (L.D. ii. 44)
and the Vlth (L.D. ii. 112), and
rSi. — L.D. II. 112.
lOO EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
such was copied until late times. But in
the more decorative cornices of the
XVIIIth dynasty the ribbing was broken
up by cross lines,
sometimes curved
upward, sometimes
downward. These
III II5
cross lines must be a degradation of the
leaves of the palm branch. In later times
they are omitted, and the pattern becomes
simply striped.
This cornice was copied in Syrian archi-
tecture, in the plain form without ribbing,
as in the tomb at Siloam and the slabs
of Lachish ; but it does not appear to
have ever taken root in Assyria, though
attempted there, nor is it known in Europe.
The other main type of Egyptian cornice
is what is known as the Khaker, from the
equivalent of the sign as a hieroglyph in
inscriptions. This only means “to cover”
1S2 — L D.
STRUCTURAL DECORATION loi
or “to ornament,” and therefore refers to
the position of the decoration and not to
its origin. The clue to the real nature of
this decoration is given in a tomb of the
IVth dynasty (Ptah-hotep, L.D. ii. loi.
b.), where we see the khaker ornament
not as a mere painting, but represented as
standing up solid around the tops of the
cabins of boats. It cannot therefore be
anything very heavy or solid, such as
spear-heads, as has been proposed. It
probably results in some way from the
construction of the cabins.
They must have had roofs
of very light material.
Papyrus was generally used
for building boats, and
therefore for cabins also,
most likely. This gives us
the clue to interpret it. Suppose a screen
of papyrus stems ; the roofing stems tied
Fig. 184
102 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
on to the uprights ; and the loose wiry
leaves at the head tied together, to keep
them from straggling over and looking
untidy. Here we have all the de-
tails of the kkaker ornament simply
resulting from structural necessity.
The leaves are gathered together at
the lower tying ; there the end view
of the concentric coats of the papy-
185.—
Pr.sse88 stems of the roof are seen as
concentric circles ; above which the leaves
bulge out and are tied together near the
top. Though this structural decoration is
seen on the top of boat cabins as early
as the IVth dynasty, yet we have not
found it as decoration on a flat surface
until the Xllth. Then it is very com-
mon ; but its meaning became confused in
the XVII Ith dynasty, and in Ptolemaic
times it is seen in absurd positions, as
on a base, and on circhitraves above an
STRUCTURAL DECORATION 103
empty space, where no stems below it
were possible.
We have just mentioned one use of
reeds or papyrus in the torus roll on the
edge of buildings ; but on interior decora-
tion we meet again with the same motive.
The borders of Egyptian scenes from the
earliest times are framed with a variety of
bindings ; and so suitable did such border-
ing seem that it was continued with but
little variation throughout all the history.
The oldest forms are —
plain binding
a diagonal binding,
186 — L-D II. 43.
187— LD II 44.
and crossed binding.
189.— L.D. II. 54
104 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
The latter became
modified into —
190. — L D. II. 148.
by the Xlth dynasty, showing that its
meaning was already becoming forgotten.
But a modification of the tow^er ends
of this pattern in the Xllth dynasty
is difficult to understand ; unless we
can look on it as an irregular wind-
ing of the ends of the cord around
the reed bundle in place of the
regular crossing which is shown
132 above it.
The modification of colours and arrange-
ment in the plain binding is interminable.
In the XVIIIth dynasty
we find
192.— L.D. III 115
in the XIXth
in late times
193 — L.D II 136
194— P 72 76.
STRUCTURAL DECORATION 105
and in all ages a binding with a number
of lines between coloured spaces was
common
Fig. 195.
and on borders of architecture and statuary
thrones |j ]||| |||j |||j ||j~
Fig* 196-
CHAPTER V.
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION.
' I "HE Egyptian who expressed all his
thoughts by a symbolical writing,
full of determinatives, was naturally much
given to symbolism in his decoration.
Not, however, that all his decoration was
symbolic in a recondite sense ; the ever-
present lotus ornament was merely a thing
of beauty ; the lotus was not a sacred
plant, it is not associated with any divinity
in particular, and only in one unusual in-
stance does it ever occur in the hiero-
glyphs. The fanciful habit of Europe, in
seeing a hidden sense in every flower, was
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION
107
not akin to the simple and elementary
mind of the Egyptian. But certain strik-
ing emblems he used continually ; and one
of the earliest of these is the uraeus snake,
or cobra in his wrath, reared up with ex-
panded body ready to strike. The dignity
and power of the animal made it to be
an emblem of the king, or rather perhaps
of the royal power of death. That capital
punishment was used in Egypt is seen in
the Westcar Tales, which probably date
from the Old Kingdom, where a condemned
malefactor is ordered to be brought forth
for a magician to try his power in bring-
ing him to life when slain. The king, as
having the power of death, bore the uraeus
always on his head-dress ; and from the
earliest days (at Medum) the royal court
of justice was adorned with a cornice of
uraei, implying that there resided the
royal right of judgment and of condemna-
io8 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
tion. This cornice seems, however, to
have been regarded as merely
n n royal in later times, and was
Fig. 197. freely used to adorn any royal
structure, even a wooden summer-house
(Amenhotep II.); or the uraei formed a
band around columns (Akhenaten), or ap-
pear as supporters of the royal cartouche
(P. 72), either plain (Ramessu
II.) or
winged
198.-P 72. (Horem- Fig. 199.
heb) L.D. iii. 122).
A symbolism closely connected with this
is that of the globe and wings. This cer-
tainly dates to the beginning of the monu-
mental age, as it is seen above
200.— Khtifu. jjjg figure of Khufu seated
on an amulet. In that in- 201. — Unas,
stance it is on too small a scale to show
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION 109
the details ; but in the next dynasty it
appears above Unas at Elephantine, with
the globe flanked by two uraei and two
wings. What the symbolism of it was we
have no direct information. But when we
consider that the wings are those of the
vulture spread out, as it appears on the
roofs of the passages as a protecting and
preserving maternal emblem, and the uraeus
is associated with it, we can hardly view it
as other than the same idea of the power
of life and death, of preservation and de-
struction. But in this emblem it is not
the king who wields these powers, but Ra
the Sun, whose disc appears in the midst.
That the wings have thus the
meaning of protection is shown
by the globe with drooping “*^22°
wings embracing the royal name, express-
ing the protection given by Ra to the
king, without associating the deadly or
no EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
punitive power of the uraeus. A curious
form of this emblem which
was common in the early
203— LD III. 8 XVIIIth dynasty
is with only one wing.
One of the most perfect and beautiful
winged disc is on 204. — P. 72
the temple of Tahutmes IIL, but it con-
tinued to be used down to the latest times
of Egyptian architecture as a lintel decora-
In the XIXth dynasty an addition to
the symbolism appears ; the horns of a
ram are added to the wings ; sometimes
without the uraei (Ramessu I., L.D. in.
13 1), sometimes with the uraei (Ramessu
II., L.D. III. 204). These rams’ horns
can hardly be other than those of the
ram-headed god Khnum, “the maker” or
“ modeller ” of men. The idea then of
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION iii
the wings and horns is that Ra makes as
well as protects ; and where the uraeus is
added it implies that Ra is creator, pre-
server, and destroyer.
The vulture alone as the emblem of pro-
tection is frequently figured with out-
stretched wings across the ceilings of the
passages, particularly those of the royal
tombs of the XIXth dynasty. There is
perhaps no sight in the animal world more
imposing than one of these birds, stretched
out with a span of some nine or ten feet,
hanging in the air close overhead ; it is
natural that it should have excited the
admiration of man, and not being hurtful
it readily came to be honoured as a type
of maternal care.
The scarab was another such typical
animal, rolling the pellet containing an egg
1 12 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
to a safe place where it buries it. Though
very common as an amulet for the living
and the dead, yet it is not often seen
in symbolical or decorative use otherwise.
With what idea the amulet was used we
do not know for certain. The scarab itself
is often figured as holding the disc of the
sun between its claws : and it is at least
possible that the symbolic idea of the
scarab as the maker or creator arose from
the burial of its ball being an emblem of
the setting of the sun, from which new
life will arise in due course. It occurs
with the wings extended and the disc
between the
claws as a
centre figure
205.— p 81 space
of a ceiling pattern (Neferhotep, XVIIIth
dynasty), and on the border of the cover-
ing of a shrine under Ramessu X., and
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION 113
is occasionally met with later in decoration.
The lion as a noble and royal animal
frequently figures in
the XV 1 1 1 th dynasty.
The Egyptians, with
their marvellous in-
stinct for taming every
animal they could find, actually trained
lions or leopards to live as domesticated
animals, with the same sort
of allowed wildness as modern
hunting dogs. The lion ac-
208 — p 78. conipanied the king in battle ;
but in camp it lay down as peaceably as
an ox. It was fre-
quently carved on
the sides of the
thrones of the
XVIIIth - XXth
dynasties, and also 209. — L D. III. 100.
seated in pairs, facing or backing, on the
9
114 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
temple walls, a usage reminding us of the
lion gate of Mvkenae of the same age.
Some of the Egyptian divinities also ap-
pear as symbolic orna-
ments. T'he figures
of the goddess Maat
with spread wings
adorned the ark of
Amen-ra under Ta-
hutimes II. ; and in
210 L.D. III. 114
earlier times similar cheru-
bic figures stand guarding
the name of Antef V. on
a scarab.
Hathor also appears on various objects.
A mirror handle carved in wood during
the Xllth dynasty has the head of Hat-
hor (P. I. xiii.) ; columns with heads of
Hathor, crowned with a shrine occupied
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION
115
by a uraeus, are found introduced by
Amenhotep III. in his temples at El
Kab and Sedeinga, and were copied by
Ramessu II. at Abu Simbel.
The similar head of Hathor
was frequently made in glazed
pottery as a pendant in the
time of Akhenaten. And in
later times these Hathor
headed capitals became usual
under the Ptolemies, as in the well-known
case of the portico of the great temple at
Dendera.
Bes was one of the favourite popular
deities of the Egyptians ; restricted to no
place in particular, every votary of music
and the dance patronised Bes. The little
statuette of a dancing girl with a Bes
mask on, besides an actual mask in cer-
tonnage, found at Kahun, show the popu-
larity of the god in the Xllth dynasty.
ii6 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
In later times his figure is frequently seen.
At Tell el Amarna ornaments for neck-
laces made in glazed pottery followed two
types of Bes, the god dancing with the
tambourine seen in side view, and the
earlier grotesque front view, with arms
akimbo. These familiar little figures con-
tinued to be made till late times ; and in
the Roman age Bes was elevated to
architectural dignity on the dies above
the columns at Dendereh in the small
temple of the Mammeisi.
Another and more artificial mode of
symbolical decoration was by means of
the hieroglyphic signs. Having a mode
of writing in which a single mark could
express an abstract idea, it was possible
to adapt writing to a purely decorative
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION 117
design. Even with alphabetic characters
this has been done, as in the elaborate
crossing patterns of the earlier Arab
period in Egypt, in which no untrained
eye would see anything but a complex
ornament.
Four of the hieroglyphs most usually
worked into ornamental designs are
the ankh, a girdle, or symbol of life ; aA
the tket, another form of girdle, with ill
213 —
longer bow-tie in front, which, as
always identified with Isis, may have
been a primitive feminine girdle,
the ankh being masculine; the 'thm.
^ g tias^ a stick of authority, or
W symbol of power ; and the
^ ^ dad, a row of columns, or
215. — 216 —
uas. Dad. symbol of stability.
As early as the Old Kingdom
we find wooden framings, or lattices,
ornamented with dad signs ; and
ii8 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
this continued at least as late as Amen-
hotep II. The dad also appears
in what is probably copied from
pierced woodwork, in a relief
at Qurneh of Ramessu I.
The combination of thet dad uas, and of
ankh dad teas, is found in the Xllth dynasty
at Benihasan, appa-
rently carved in relief,
on the wooden panels
of a litter (R.C. xciii.). The same occur
similarly carved on the ebony doors of
Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri The
group begins to appear as an archi-
tectural design early in the XVIIIth
dynasty, and continues down to Roman
times, especially on bases of scenes and
groups, thus forming a continuous border
of good wishes. The hieroglyphs, ankh,
dad, and 7 tas, are all found on pendants for
necklaces, in the blue glazed pottery of
Fig. 218
000
SfQ
i
si Li
217 — L i->.
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION 119
the XVIIIth dynasty, and also combined
in one as a ring bezil. And the tket
girdle tie of Isis appears repeated as a
pattern, probably of pierced woodwork,
along the sides of a shrine of Tahutimes
III. at Semneh, and on the base of a
couch in the birth scene of Amenhotep
III. (R.S. xxxviii.). As funeral amulets
the thet, dad, and ankli occur commonly,
but that branch is outside of the subject
of decoration.
Another hieroglyph often appearing as an
ornament is the sam, or symbol of union.
The origin of it is yet unexplained. It
certainly is a column of some kind;
it has a well-marked capital and an
abacus. The capital is formed much
like the palm-leaf capital ; and the
stem is clearly bound round, and
must therefore be composite. This kiiafra.
suggests that it might be a column of
120 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
palm sticks bound together, with some
tops left projecting for ornament. Such
miafht well be more conventionalised at
the beginning of Egyptian sculpture in
the IVth dynasty than the other kinds of
capitals ; and the immigrant race came
from the region of the palm, while the
lotus and papyrus only were reached by
them in Egypt itself. The base is a
main difficulty to explain. It might be
conventionalised clods of earth, with two
curled-over side branches of the palm ;
but it has been so modified that we must
await more evidence. In any case the
stem is formed of several parts bound to-
gether, and hence it was
very naturally adopted as
a symbol of union. It was
further grouped with two
plants, the stalks of which
were linked around it. It is always
SYMBOLICAL DECORATION 121
supposed that these symbolise northern
and southern Eg)'pt, and that the group
means the union of all the land. Still it
is yet uncertain what plants are intended
to be represented, though on the throne
of Tahutimes IV. they are clearly lotus
and papyrus ; but the evidence is too late
to be of much value. This group was a
favourite decoration from beginning to end
of Egyptian history. At the beginning of
the Xllth dynasty an addition was made
by placing a figure of Hapi or the Nile
on each side of the group (Tanis i. i.),
each figure holding one of the two plants.
As these figures were crowned, one with
the sign of south the other of north, they
point to the plants being emblems of the
south and north also. This group with
the figures is found as late as the XXth
dynasty (L.D. iii. 237). Another design
came into fashion during the great foreign
122 EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART
wars of the XVIIIth dynasty, represent-
ing two captives, one negro, one Syrian,
bound back to back against the sam ; thus
it symbolised not only the union of upper
and lower Egypt, but also of the northern
and southern races outside of Egypt.
Later on, four or even six such racial
types are figured as bound together.
INDEX
Amu dresses
PAGZ
IS
Ankh girdle
. . .
.. II7
Anthemion
.. 65, 72
Assyrian lotus
72
Barks of gods
...
... 83
Basket-work screens
I+. 3 < 5 , 93
Bell capital
... 76
Bes, god of dance
115
Binding patterns. ,
... IC3
Birds
... 87
Boat covers
,..29, 31
Borders, spiral
40
lotus
64
Borrowed art
... 40
Brickwork panelling
... 95
„ curved courses
... 96
C-SPIRALS...
34
Calf
. . 87
Captives ...
. . 84
„ bound together
85, 122
„ painted on sandals
86
Cavetto cornice ...
... 98
Chain of spirals ...
20
Chequer patterns
... 44
Circles, not usual
... 47
,, not divided by six
49
Classes of ornament
9
Cobra
... 107
133
124
INDEX
Coils
PAG!
20
Continuous spirals
...
20
Convolvulus decoration .
8i
Cornice, palm
...
...
. 98
Dad columns
95 » 117
Daisy
... 58
Decoration, classes of
9
Decorative instinct of Egyptians
2
Descent of patterns
5
Disc with spots . -
. . 60
„ and wings . .
108
Duck
.. 87
Endless spirals ...
...
... 21
Feather patterns ...
50
„ types of ..
51
„ belts
52
Fleur de lys type... . ,
...
... 68
Flower ornament...
. . .
... 55
Framing of wood
...
... 94
Fret patterns
...
••• 35
,, Greek
...
...36, 43
Garlands
82
Geometrical ornament . .
... 9, 12
Girdles a 7 tkh and tket
. . .
... 117
Globe and wings
108
Graining of wood . .
89
Grape pendants ..
80
Greek fret
56. 43
,, lotus
„ architecture, structural
72
... 91
INDEX 125
Guilloche
PAGE
40
Hathor head
„ capitals... . .
Hawk
Hexagon pattern. .
Hieroglyphs decorative ...
„ symbolic
Hooks
Horns
IH
115
87
H
3
116
20
1 10
Ibex
Imitation of wood
stone
Isiemkheb, tent of
87
89
89
Kahun, guilloche at
Keft dresses
Khahher pattern ...
Khufu
41
15
100
108
Lachish, slabs
Leatherwork
„ rosettes
Line decoration .-
zigzag
Links
Lion
Lotus patterns
„ tied
„ capitals
border
100
•■•56, 59
... 57
iz
... 13
zo
... II3
61
62
63
64
... 66
126
INDEX
Lotus friezes
PAGE
. 67
„ flower developed ...
..
. 70
„ flower with pendants
73
„ column
...
76
Maat goddess
...
. 114
Maeander
...
Minusinsk art
...
7
Mykenaean spirals
...
38
„ borrowed art
...
„ ox head
...
59
„ disc and spots
...
... ... 60
Natural ornament
...
lO; 50
Network patterns
...
... ... 46
Nile figures
...
... 121
Orchomenos
• • •
39
Origin of patterns
• «»
5
Ornament, classes of
...
• » . ... ^
Palm capital
...
78
„ not common
...
79
„ cornice
...
98
„ column
...
... ... 120
Palmetto...
* • •
65
Panelled pattern... . .
...
9 S
Papyrus ...
...
61,75
,, cornice
. . .
... ... lOI
Patterns not re-invented .
...
8
Pectorals ..
...
83
Perspective, Egyptian
69
Plaiting patterns ...
...
• ■ i+. 36, 44
INDEX
127
PAGE
Ra, creator, preserver and destroyer
. . Ill
Roll on buildings
97 , 103
Rope
borders
42
pattern
... 92
Rosette
.. 56, 58
Rushwork plaiting
H, 36, 93
Sam column
... 119
Scale
pattern really feathers
52
Scarab spirals
18
symbolical
. . II2
Scroll
pattern
Siloam tomb
100
Sloping faces of buildings
... 96
Spiral
or scroll
• 17
origin of ... .. . .
18
sole patterns
. . 24
earlier on scarabs...
... 28
55
surface decoration
... 29
)5
with lotus...
30
55
crossed lines
31
55
<]^uadruple
31
55
quintuple .
34
55
developed to fret ...
. . 36
55
late
... 23
Subdttnstonu
55
coils ... ... 20, 21, 23,
245 29, 40
55
hooks
19, 20, 22
5 )
links ... ... . 19, 20,
21, 29, 42
55
chain
...20, 21
5 5
continuous
...20, 25
55
endless
...21, 23
128
INDEX
Spiral false links . .
„ lop-sided
Spots, not Egyptian
Star patterns
Stitch patterns
Structural ornament
Styles^ characteristic
Symbolic ornament
Tell el Amarna 29, 54,
Terms for spirals
Thet girdle
Thistle decoration . .
Torus, origin of...
Uas sceptre
Uraeus ...
V PATTERN
Vine patterns
Vulture ...
Wave borders
Wavy line, rounded
Weaving patterns
Wings symbol of protection
Wood, imitation of
Wooden framing...
Wreaths ...
Zigzag lines
PAGE
. . 26
27
15. 60
... ... 57, 58, 88
43. S7
10. 91
8
1 1, 106
58, 71. 75. So, 87, 116
20
117
82
• 97
.117
107
55
79
87, HI
41
16
14
. . 109
89
94
83
13
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